Failed Ich Eradication

andys · Nov 3, 2018

Good morning

So a little history. back around the first of the year I started Hypo to 1.007 for 3 months. fish didn't seam to get better so I pulled all my fish and QTed in copper. dropped salinity in display to 1.003 and left it there till August then raised it. should be no ICH in Display. October 1 move all fish from QT to Display. well this week I see ICH on them. Not sure what the heck went wrong. so here iam. the plan I have though of is remove the sand and Rock. dry rock structures. remove all but 1 gallon of my marine pure balls and remove both marine pure blocks. Copper Display. ya I said It. there is no coral in there beside a few snails that I will remove. In 30 days start removing copper till 0 is registered. then put back my rock structures. also put back my marine pure blocks and balls. Goal is to remove all copper and hope to put coral in someday. Please give me your thoughts. Thanks

mtdaly85 · Nov 3, 2018

Yikes, that sounds awful. Something isn't adding up. With no fish hosts, the Ich should have been eradicated completely within the 5 months of being fallow. Did you add anything to the tank?

andys · Nov 3, 2018

mtdaly85 said:
Yikes, that sounds awful. Something isn't adding up. With no fish hosts, the Ich should have been eradicated completely within the 5 months of being fallow. Did you add anything to the tank?

Nope. Zero

EmdeReef · Nov 3, 2018

andys said:
Good morning

So a little history. back around the first of the year I started Hypo to 1.007 for 3 months. fish didn't seam to get better so I pulled all my fish and QTed in copper. dropped salinity in display to 1.003 and left it there till August then raised it. should be no ICH in Display. October 1 move all fish from QT to Display. well this week I see ICH on them. Not sure what the heck went wrong. so here iam. the plan I have though of is remove the sand and Rock. dry rock structures. remove all but 1 gallon of my marine pure balls and remove both marine pure blocks. Copper Display. ya I said It. there is no coral in there beside a few snails that I will remove. In 30 days start removing copper till 0 is registered. then put back my rock structures. also put back my marine pure blocks and balls. Goal is to remove all copper and hope to put coral in someday. Please give me your thoughts. Thanks

Have you ran your display fishless for 76 days and have not added anything wet during that period? Some strains of ich can survive a bit longer but it’s very rare. If your tank was at virtually no salinity as well I would suspect that your QT copper level dropped below therapeutic level. What copper did you use and what test kit? How often did you test?

Running copper in DT, while not ideal, can be done, however marine pure blocks will make it tough to maintain the therapeutic dose. i would suggest removing them. You could use seachem matrix during treatment as it does not seem to adsorb copper.

you plan to let your rocks dry?

andys · Nov 3, 2018

EmdeReef said:
Have you ran your display fishless for 76 days and have not added anything wet during that period? Some strains of ich can survive a bit longer but it’s very rare. If your tank was at virtually no salinity as well I would suspect that your QT copper level dropped below therapeutic level. What copper did you use and what test kit? How often did you test?

Running copper in DT, while not ideal, can be done, however marine pure blocks will make it tough to maintain the therapeutic dose. i would suggest removing them. You could use seachem matrix during treatment as it does not seem to adsorb copper.

you plan to let your rocks dry?

Yes Drying the rock out. I use copper power and no never let it get below 1.75 Tank was fishless for almost 5 months at 1.004 -1.003 and have not added anything. I also own a fish shop so i am very diligent in my QT. Anyway what is done is done. I just need a solution

GoldeneyeRet · Nov 3, 2018

Was the display truly fallow? I have seen tanks where an unknown fish lives- hitch hiker, stuck in sump/ overflow, presumed dead etc.

Assuming no hidden fish, I suspect ich survived your copper treatment. Cross contamination, testing errors, un doses water changes etc. Could be the cause.

Lastly, are you sure its ich?

I would re treat the fish before before using copper in dt, but I understand how unattractive that option is.

Good luck

noahreefer · Nov 3, 2018

I used to battle with Ich and the one thing that got rid of it was this product called hypercure. I never had to reach the point of going fallow. This may or may not be helpful for you but hope it helps

andys · Nov 3, 2018

GoldeneyeRet said:
Was the display truly fallow? I have seen tanks where an unknown fish lives- hitch hiker, stuck in sump/ overflow, presumed dead etc.

Assuming no hidden fish, I suspect ich survived your copper treatment. Cross contamination, testing errors, un doses water changes etc. Could be the cause.

Lastly, are you sure its ich?

I would re treat the fish before before using copper in dt, but I understand how unattractive that option is.

Good luck

Ya it was fallow. Yes it’s ICH. It had to be cross contamination. Not sure how since my fish room is at the other side of the house. Where there is know ICH and Velvet. I’m very anal and bleach everything ( I use it full strength)